Saturday, September 04, 2010

Under control

In half an hour from now the motorway anarchy will begin as the Newmarket motorway viaduct is closed by the NZTA. Why? No-one seems to care. No-one wants to know.

It's a great feat of engineering. That's how Mike Hosking was hyping it on the Close Up teaser last night - like he and TVNZ were on contract to the transit authority. "Under Control" they called the story. No shit. So I didn't watch it. The promo had all the hallmarks of the gushing, shallow, postcard-like gosh-wow-shucks analysis that John Campbell had done a few weeks before on his version of TV One's family variety show. So I had to watch it at the TVNZ site. That was 5 min. 23 sec. of my life (plus 30 sec bank ad with that excruciatingly smug cunt Craig Parker) lost forever.

At 0:23 The Hosko says in his brief intro "...to replace the current one which is apparently a potential earthquake risk..." and that is as close as we get to an actual critical inquiry; with Mike Holland's grinning inanities with the workmen making up the entire report. It was infantile: look at the big machine, see it move, isn't it big, aren't the workmen cheeky... Janet and John 5 year old picture book shit - insulting. Just utterly, utterly risible. It's all about the feat of engineering.

Well, BFD you pathetic light-weights. A feat of bloody engineering, eh. Auschwitz was an engineering feat too, so was many a dictator's lavish folly. Big Fucking Deal - that's not the issue. They pose there with their hard hats on and they lap up the stats and powerpoint presentations without any thought. Without a single thought. All they have to ask the NZTA is "Why?" and then listen to the answer and then they will get to the truth that this is a monumental, unnecessary waste of money. About $100m is going to go up in flames as soon as they start demolishing the existing viaduct.

See August and July and a more comprehensive post in January that analyses why and how the NZTA are corrupt liars and how unjustified the total $215m is and how the remaining $100m-odd yet to be spent (on demolishing the old viaduct and building another new one to go alongside the just completed one) works out to $250,000 per metre for that one additional lane it will contribute. It is insane. I don't want anymore ignorant comments from people who haven't read these posts - if you don't want to read them, then please don't comment on this post - I'll delete it to save readers that dismal torture. In fact I don't want your comments, they aren't going to be of any value - with very few exceptions they have proved worthless on this subject - so if you are one of those fuckwits, STFU and take note:

The Emperor is standing, legs akimbo, with his ballsack dangling down like a pair of plums in a wet paper bag, his pubic hair is as bushy as a Victorian beard and is bristling in the breeze, his arse cheeks are dimpled goose-bumps from the wind and everyone in New Zealand - every fucking one them - is complimenting him on the finest robes they have ever seen. From rote they will recite the cloth, colour and cut: because some fucking monkey in a high-vis vest has told them that some other fucking monkey with a bigger office in a floor above him reckons that it's Armani. That's NZ for you. This is the reason why intelligent people with their wits about them can't wait to get the fuck out of this country - and never return. It is the reason why the intelligent people who don't or can't leave find that they can coast along adequately in the intellectual vacuum by exploitation of this public and institutional idiocy for their own advancement - at which point they become part of the problem and the cycle continues.

The inevitable conclusion I am bound to draw from this case study of mass stupidity is that it's not just the media that is "dumbed down" in NZ - it is the people themselves that are dumbed down. Like they must have passed a law to put extra-concentrated moron juice in the nation's water supply sometime last century - that's the effect of a mono-cultural education system, low expectations and a shallow pool of inter-related élites.

It is very difficult to respect your fellow citizens - let alone the institutions of our society - when they prove themselves to be gullible cretins over and over again. It is increasingly difficult to care about them when they don't care that $100,000,000.00 of their government's revenue is about to be squandered on destroying something (based on corruption and lies) and yet they are exercised to yelp loudly at every $50.00 bill on a politician's credit card.

Citizens and taxpayers: do the fucking maths you credulous dupes:

Today: 9 lanesAfter: 7 lanesCost: $100 million

The official purpose is to increase capacity, but we lose 2 lanes from what we have now. And it's costing $100m (and motorway anarchy this weekend). It's net loss after net loss. Chuck another billion on the fucking railways while you're at it. Chuck a billion on those greedy fucking junk bond-holders, privatise all the water for the farmers and make the indigenous people beg for a pittance of their patrimony that the settlers have mortgaged to the hilt before it's all whored off to the next wave of immigrants to pile into the pyramid scheme. God, Jesus and Mary I can't wait to leave this depressing, tedious fucking shit hole... oh that's right I can't... because of my multiple previous acts of contempt for the regime that sustains this depressing, tedious fucking shit hole. Guess I'll just have to be a professional cunt like everyone else trapped here - they're the only types who succeed in this society. Happy motoring you fucking schmucks.